Two hits and a walk were the lone blemishes for Etowah pitcher Bryan White in Tuesday night’s game against River Ridge. The senior struck out 15 and showed an efficiency that kept his pitch count low.
Staff photo by Samantha M. Shal

WOODSTOCK — Etowah’s Bryan White displayed his mastery of the mound Tuesday night, striking out 15 batters in a 4-0 victory over visiting River Ridge.

The senior allowed two hits and a walk — all to the Knights’ John Cable — in the complete-game victory. He stuck out the side in the third and fifth innings.

Etowah coach Greg Robinson said the performance was something he expects.

“White just had great stuff,” Robinson said. “He commanded both sides of the plate and had control of his breaking pitch and his changeup. When you throw strikes, things happen quick. We had some timely hitting, but I was real proud of White.”

White was not only effective, but efficient. In two innings, he threw fewer than 10 pitches. When he struck out the side in the fifth inning, he used just 11 pitches to do so.

“He threw strikes,” Robinson said. “He pitched ahead, and then our guys made plays in the infield. Just an outstanding effort, which is what you want.”

Etowah (7-2) got on the board in the third inning. Tristan Dowling-Mooney singled to lead off and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by H.D. Dillard. Leadoff batter Joey Hume then doubled to plate Dowling-Mooney.

Hume stole third and scored on a squeeze play when Jake Swan put down a solid bunt. River Ridge (1-6) attempted to record the out at home and Swan was safe at first, but no further damage was done was J.T. Thomas and Will Campbell flied out to end the inning.

With help from an error by the Knights in the fifth inning, Etowah tacked on another run. Swan hit a two-out double to center and he scored when the next batter, Thomas, reach first safely on a throwing error by the shortstop.

The Eagles struck again in the bottom of the sixth, and this time the damage could have been much worse had River Ridge not pulled off a triple play to end the inning.

Knox and Karst hit back-to-back singles to start the frame, and Porche then singled to left to drive home Knox. Dowling-Mooney then singled and the bases were loaded with no outs when Karst was held up at third.

Jake Ferrentinos entered the game to run for Dowling-Mooney, but he wasn’t on base long. Dillard connected for a sharp hit that shortstop Ian Andrews caught at his shoelaces. Andrews threw to second for the out there and then on to first to complete the triple play.

To River Ridge’s credit, its pitching staff, led by starter Jackson Weeg, kept Etowah under wraps for most of the game.

Weeg, who threw four innings, struck out four, gave up three hits and recorded a pair of outs in the fourth inning by picking off Etowah’s Knox and Destin Porche.

Blake Juberg and Michael Hampton worked two innings of relief for the Knights and combined to give up five hits and two runs.

River Ridge coach Scott Bradley said the game was typical for his team. The pitching was solid, but they couldn’t get runs across the plate, or even many runners on base.

“It’s the same story,” he said. “Our pitching staff has kept us in probably every game this year. Even (Tuesday), the pitching game out and did very well. We had two errors that cost us two runs, but I think anybody that was here (Tuesday night) knows where we failed the most, and that was at the plate.”

Bradley said that it’s no secret his team has a long way to go to improve, but he is hoping that, by the time Region 7AAAA play begins next week, things are a bit better. The coach said Weeg is ready to go for the region, but he left the game early Tuesday to give some of the other pitchers a chance to get some more innings.

River Ridge will practice hard through this week before facing Cherokee on Saturday. Etowah will be back on the field today when it hosts Alpharetta.

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